Joe Schutzman is a Newport firefighter who loves Northern Kentucky’s culture, sense of place – and beer. Find Joe’s previous columns and more on NKY dining here.
The season is upon us, and I must admit I’m an absolute sucker for the holidays. It’s one of my favorite times of year, and while I’ve become incredibly skilled at finding a reason to say this on any occasion and during any season, it’s a time of year that pairs really well with a good beer.
Christmas evokes so many pleasant memories for me, from putting up the tree to watching every version of “A Christmas Carol” I can find to eggnog and my grandmother’s legendary Christmas Eve food spreads. My favorite moments of all, though, are the ones spent with family and friends at holiday parties and get-togethers.
All of these parties mean it’s time to stock up on beer. Now, this segment is usually about the best places to grab a beer in Northern Kentucky, but with the holidays quickly approaching, I thought it might be a cool idea to tell you about some of the beers that I’ll be sharing this year.
First on the list is a Christmas beer I recently learned about while spending a few days in Austria. It’s called Samichlaus and is from the brewer Schloss Eggenberg. The name is derived from the day on which they used to release the beer, St. Nicholas Day. I had the lovely opportunity to tour the Schloss Eggenberg facility last month, and while doing so, I learned about this beer and immediately fell in love.
This is the highest ABV beer I’ve ever had at a staggering 14%. I was even told that the creators of the beer actually had to engineer special yeast capable of holding up to such a high alcohol content.
A bottle of Samichlaus is best shared amongst two or three folks and is usually served out of a snifter glass. It’s one of the most complex and sweetest beers I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying, and if the beer purists amongst us will forgive this comparison, it reminds me of a dessert wine.
As previous readers might have guessed, I will also obviously be bringing my favorite brewery, Schneider-Weisse, to the party. However, this season I will not be bringing the Tap 7 Original like I usually do. Instead, I will be sharing their weizen-doppelbock, Aventinus. It is truly a magical combination of my two favorite types of beer, the doppelbock and the wheat beer.
I will also be bringing some of my favorite local selections. This year, I will be sipping on Braxton’s Garage Beer, Rhinegeist’s Beer for Humans, and West Side’s Holiday Ale.
I have found Garage Beer to be a good gateway beer for the stubborn macro-domestic drinker in your life. It’s the quintessential American beer with that extra touch of care and devotion to the product. It’s straightforward and self-aware, and a hard beer to turn down.
Then you have Beer for Humans. This is one of my go-to beers when I am looking for something crisp and not too heavy. It’s very refreshing and packs a nice little citrusy kick.
Finally, we have a new beer for me. I just recently tried it and was smitten from sip-one. Holiday Ale is West Side Brewery’s Christmas in a can. This amber ale is warm and inviting, and for any of you who, like me, will serve some of these beers in a flight, it is the perfect bridge between the lighter beers and the higher ABV stuff like Aventinus and Samichlaus.
Whatever beer you choose this season, the most important thing, the overarching message of this entire series, is to love the folks you’re sharing a beer with. Create your own beer tradition. My parents have recently begun getting an Advent beer calendar. It’s a box full of craft beers, one for each day of Advent. My mom and dad will sit down at the kitchen table, mom with a notepad at the ready, and they will rate the beers as they try them throughout the month.
They always manage to discover one or two to add to their repertoire, but the beers I enjoy hearing about the most are the ones they didn’t care for. Sometimes the best stories don’t come from the best beers. Sometimes, the best stories come from a husband and wife goading each other into mustering up the fortitude to take another sip of a dill-flavored ale.
And now that I have shared some of the beers I will be enjoying during my Christmas festivities, I’d really love to hear what beers you all like to share with friends and family through the holiday season. Please feel free to drop me a line with some beers I need to try!